Jesus Dies on the Cross
The end. It is finished.
Your throne in Heaven is now connected to earth by the rough-hewn wood of a cross. All around Your bloodstained body, stands a crowd of frightened, cowering people, suddenly engulfed in a strange, physical darkness that had but recently been only inside there souls. The Sun and stars hide themselves behind the glowering clouds, ashamed of the scene below them. The earth itself shudders violently in revulsion. No one dares to utter a word.
Your Mother stands beneath your cross, held in the arms of the disciple whom You love, gazing at Your now still body. The Romans think they have executed a criminal, a mere man. She begins to understand the words of the angel. She knows that You are much more than a man. Like the dawning of the day, the knowledge that You willed to die creeps across her consciousness.
No one can take Your life. You lay it down freely, and You will take it up again.
